Collection Guide

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Administrative Information

Access and Restrictions: This collection is open for research.

Digital Surrogates: Except where indicated, this document describes but does not reproduce the actual text, images and objects which make up this collection. Materials are available only in the Special Collections Department.

Copyright:  Please read The University of Iowa Libraries' statement on "Property Rights, Copyright Law, and Permissions to Use Unpublished Materials"

Use of Collections:  The University of Iowa Libraries supports access to the materials, published and unpublished, in its collections. Nonetheless, access to some items may be restricted by their fragile condition or by contractual agreement with donors, and it may not be possible at all times to provide appropriate machinery for reading, viewing or accessing non-paper-based materials. Please read our Use of Manuscripts Statement.

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Biographical Note

Harry Duncan started the Cummington Press with fellow students at the Cummington School of the Arts in Cummington, Massachusetts. Over the years, the other students fell away but Duncan perservered. Paul Wightman Williams joined him in 1944 for what would become a twelve year collaboration. The press moved from Cummington to Rowe, Massachusetts, in 1954. After Williams was killed in a car accident in 1956, Duncan moved to the University of Iowa to teach and to continue printing books under the Cummington Press name. He bought a large house in West Branch, Iowa, and there established his press. (This house would later be bought by the Kornblums who started the Toothpaste Press there.) In 1973 he joined the faculty at the University of Nebraska, where he taught the art of book making. The books created were brought out under the auspices of the Abattoir Press. Harry Duncan died in 1997.

Jacque Roethler 2006

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Scope and Contents

Print specimens from Cummington Press and a few from Abattoir Press. Copy of Fine Print with articles about Harry Duncan.

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Related Materials

Harry Duncan Papers at Emory University

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Acquisition and Processing Information

Guide posted to Internet: July 2006

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Box Contents List

Box 1

Fine Print, Vol. IV:No.1 (January 1978). Contains three articles about Harry Duncan and the Cummington Press

Print specimens, including Christmas cards. 3 folders

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